Blast from the past

Sean Flynn Daily News staff writer

Friday

Apr 13, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 13, 2012 at 12:28 PM

NEWPORT, R.I. - Coleen Hermes, chairwoman of the Social Studies Department at Rogers High School, was running around Thursday preparing for her departure to Greece today with 36 students when she heard that School Superintendent John H. Ambrogi had sent out an announcement naming her Newport’s Teacher of the Year for 2013.

“I was surprised by the news,” she said. “It’s very nice to hear.”

A teacher at Rogers for the past 13 years, Hermes followed in the footsteps of her father, the late Christopher Kiernan, a history professor who taught American studies at Salve Regina University.

“We both loved history,” she said. “I always wanted to be a teacher, since I was a little kid. It’s a wonderful job. Every September you get a new group and it’s a new beginning.”

Born in Portland, Maine, Hermes was 8 years old when her family moved to Middletown in 1980. She first attended Gaudet Middle School in Middletown and then transferred to what is now Thompson Middle School after her family moved to Newport. She is a 1990 graduate of Rogers High School.

Hermes graduated from St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., where she majored in history. She later obtained her teaching certification at Salve Regina. She remained at home caring for her two young daughters for a few years before joining the teaching staff at Rogers in 1999. She and her husband, Thomas Hermes, have three children: Gabrielle, 17, a junior at Rogers; Catherine, 15, a freshman at Rogers; and John, 9, an elementary school student.

In an interview Thursday night with The Daily News, Hermes recalled she was a “wreck” a few days into her first year teaching at Rogers and decided to stop by the home of her retired history teacher, Kevin M. Burns. He died last year.

She was looking for his secret formula on how to make her classroom time less stressful, she said.

“He told me that no, he didn’t have anything like that,” she said. “He told me to be myself, use my creativity and everything would be fine, that I’d find my way, that I would put my own stamp on things.”

Hermes has done that and has a long list of awards to show for it. Her awards are in connection with what she called two big changes in the social studies program since she began teaching at Rogers — the school’s participation in National History Day, and its involvement with the George Washington Letter Essay Contest.

In 2010, Hermes was the recipient of the Public Broadcasting System National History Day Teacher of Merit Award for Rhode Island and was selected as the PBS National History Day Teacher of Merit national finalist, finishing in the top eight nationally.

She received the 2011 Patricia Behring Award as the state’s National History Day Teacher of the Year.

“Coleen Hermes was selected based on her development of creative teaching methods that interest students in history and help them make exciting discoveries about the past,” reads a School Committee resolution Chairman Patrick K. Kelley presented to her at the time.

“Most notably, with the creation of statewide proficiency-based graduation requirements, Rogers High School began participating in National History Day activities in 2007,” reads a prepared statement from Ambrogi. “In the years to follow, Rogers’ students have won in all categories at the state fair, with many of them advancing to national competition.”

Last year, then-juniors Mary Murphy Walsh and Missy Mellekas explored the Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., which ended segregated school systems in this country. The girls were awarded “Best State Entry” at the national competition, and their exhibit was displayed at the Smithsonian Institute of American History.

Juniors Tiphanie Fuentes and Kathleen McKay won a first-place award last year in the website category for their portrayal of the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. Amy Richards, the Rogers student representative to the School Committee, announced this week that Fuentes was accepted into Harvard University.

The honors are a tribute to the students’ work but also reflect on the guidance of teachers like Hermes, Ambrogi said.

Rogers’ sophomores are challenged to research American Colonial history, Rhode Island history and the history of the First Amendment in essays. As a result, they participate in the George Washington Letter Essay Contest sponsored by Ambassador John Loeb, founder of the Touro Synagogue Visitors Center.

Hermes received the Susan B. Wilson Civic Education Merit Award for the Rogers High School Social Studies Department in recognition of the program and the essay writing. The Rhode Island League of Women Voters honored the Rogers High School Social Studies Department in 2011 for increasing civic responsibility.

“Mrs. Hermes is representative of the many outstanding teachers who work in the Newport Public Schools,” Ambrogi said in his written statement.

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